Just a few notes from my adventures as a writer and a children's librarian.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Voting Day

Over in Vermont College's student Forum, there are several topic areas where people described their adventures on Tuesday. (For some reason I keep thinking of it as Voting Day instead of Election Day.)

I bet the rest of you have your own stories.

My husband got up early and was in line before the polls opened. He says there were some people who had already been there a while -- and who had brought lawn chairs to rest in while waiting. He was in and out in 15 minutes. But when he left the polling place, the line had grown to about 200 people and cars were parked all up and down the streets for blocks.

I voted mid-morning, during the lull between the opening crush and the lunch crowd. It also took less than 15 minutes for me. But it took me much longer to get back to my car because of just generally chatting with people going in and out. Our local Brownie Girl Scout troops sold cookies at the polls all day long -- even during the rainstorm in the afternoon. Now, that's dedication.

Almost everyone at work wore Red, White, and Blue on Tuesday. Actually, there was some discussion as to whether the flowers on my sweater were red -- or pink. Oh well. I tried.

Wednesday, I put up a display of books about Obama, which were quickly checked out. I'm going to have to get rid of that 2006 biography of him, because the information in it probably was collected in 04 or 05. And I'm sure that tons of new volumes about him will be showing up on our shelves, soon. All those publishers who do one volume per president probably had contracted with writers some time ago to have books already written except for the last chapter. Now it'll be a race to get them published.

I don't envy those writers. It's no fun to write about a person still alive and actively famous. Your research is never done. There's always a new event you would like to include before going to press.-WendieOld